Democrats, yes you Sen. Klobuchar (Emily’s List MN) better be careful when trying to lambast the Oil Companies for gouging consumers. You (yes, the Government) is far worse at gouging the consumers of oil and gas than the Oil Execs. 

 

Yesterday, members of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming spent the day beating up on oil industry executives for “excessive” profits and gouging consumers at the gas pump. Lost in the political theater is the fact that those “excessive” profits are net profits: that is, profits earned after taxes are paid to government. And while the oil companies have enjoyed a few good years, history shows that government has profited more from the domestic oil industry than has its shareholders.

Recent data from the Energy Information Administration shows that since 1981—the first year of the Windfall Profits Tax—total taxes from all oil industry sources exceeded the combined profits of all companies in every year but the past three. Between 1981 and 2006, government collected $1.65 trillion in total taxes after adjusting for inflation. That is 65 percent more than the combined earnings of the 16 largest domestic oil companies during the same period.

As the chart below shows, during most of that 25 year period, government tax collections were nearly twice industry profits in any given year. Indeed, in 2002, before the recent price spikes, the industry earned a collective $20.5 billion in profits. However, government collected more than $50 billion in combined income, property, severance, and excise taxes in the same year.

So, the lesson to members of the House committee is be careful of throwing stones when you live in a glass house.

(There’s even a graph if those words don’t do it for you; click on the link above to see it and the data)

 

Oh yes, add up the gas taxes plus all the other hand in the cookie jar fees and taxes oil companies pay, and the Government is still a bigger beneficiary at the consumption of oil than those darn executives. 

Add to that this savant like quote from Pat Shortridge (via King at TN)

Gas is $3.50 a gallon and politicians are ready to lock up oil company executives. Milk is $3.50 a gallon and the same politicians can’t shovel our money to the farm lobby fast enough. What statesmen.

Oh Pat, Klobuchar is completely clueless on this one. 

Stop price gouging by oil companies. American consumers should not have to dig ever deeper into their pockets while the big oil companies amass record profits. We must eliminate oil company handouts and tax loopholes, and dedicate more funds to biofuels research and other homegrown energy sources. (Source Klobuchar Official May 5, 2008)

The taxes the Government has collected from oil companies paid for that microphone Senator. How about the Government lead by example and stop skimming off the top?

The National Taxpayer’s Union is out with their latest non-partisan ratings for members of Congress. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R MN6) is at the head of the Minnesota class. 

Michele Bachmann (R MN6) - 86, A

The rest of Minnesota’s US House Delegation is as follows. 

John Kline (R MN2) - 82, B+

Jim Ramstad (R MN3) - 47, C-

Colin Peterson (D MN7) - 7, F

Keith Ellison (D MN5) - 6, F)

Jim Oberstar (D MN8) - 5, F

Betty McCollum (D MN4) - 3, F

Tim Walz (D MN1) - 3, F

And the Senate isn’t much better:

Norm Coleman (R) - 38, C-

Amy Klobuchar (D) - 5, F

WCCO has done the latest of their anti-Republican hit jobs also dubbed, Reality Checks. (I don’t doubt the facts in it, just the fact that they don’t seem to do these sorts of things to attack Democrats very often.)

Regardless, this one hits close to home on how conservatives are less than inspired by the US Senate race this year, thanks in part to incumbent Republican Norm Coleman’s new found affinity for saying he’s not a party guy, which is code for I’m not one of those fringe right wing conservatives, I’m a moderate!

I’ve had pretty good back and forth’s with top folks with in his campaign and his supporters, and just a few months ago, their big push to me and conservatives was that he was an 80% conservative. Think the old Reagan adage about how it is better to have someone you agree with 80% of the time, then 20% of the time…..  (emphasis mine)

Coleman’s has moved away from President Bush as Bush has become less popular. In 2003, he voted to support the President 98 percent of the time, but five years later his support of the president ranks at only 68 percent.

According to Congressional Quarterly, that percentage puts Coleman in the bottom 10 Republicans in loyalty to the president.

“I am willing to work with anybody who helps get the job done,” Coleman said. “There are problems in this country that are too big for one party to solve.”

Well, frankly Coleman himself should be the one his campaign staffers and surrogates are telling that old 80/20 Rule to. Unfortunately the issues where Coleman is on the wrong side of the conservative vs. liberal debate are pretty big issues for me and others. They are the kind of issue where one side wants to have the government overreact and take over sectors of the economy and regulate like stalinistas and the other wants a limited approach with free markets prevailing.

Getting the job done on enviro-lunacy, green energy, mandates, regulations, and the endless string of pork spending and nanny state legislation is the kind of job we know any run-of-the-mill DFL Senator would be perfect for. Case in point: Amy Klobuchar, the freshman Senator from MN is the text book case of what a conservative doesn’t want representing them. Funny how Norm’s name ends up in the paper more with Klobuchar than it does with Kline and Bachmann of late, isn’t it? ….. not to a real conservative like me.

Al Franken has nothing to do with why conservatives, and Minnesotans for that fact, should vote FOR you Norm.  A few months back you were supposed to be conservative enough for us conservatives to be happy with. We were supposed to be happy with your record, but now that you’re become the presumptive nominee, you are pulling a McCain and marginalizing the conservative base of the party in your ads and statements (not to mention the last few years of votes)?

You can’t have it both ways Norm. We conservatives want a lot less Amy and a whole lot more Michele, and not Obama.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar endorses B.O. for Prez.

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama picked up the endorsement of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar Sunday night, giving him another superdelegate supporter.

In a statement provided to The Associated Press, Klobuchar said Obama “has inspired an enthusiasm and idealism that we have not seen in this country in a long time.”

Clearly that’s a shot not only at the Bush administartion, but also previous administrations….. and who was the previous administration?

Hell hath no furry like a woman Clinton scorned.

“My endorsement reflects both Barack’s strong support in my state and my own independent judgment about his abilities,” Klobuchar said.

I guess Ms. Clinton won’t be hosting any more fund raisers for  A-Klo.

In unrelated other news.

Souksangouane Phengsene, the man convicted of and imprisoned for criminal vehicular homicide after killing Minnesota Timberwolves player Malik Sealy in a 2000 crash, has been jailed once again on suspicion of driving while under the influence.

Phengsene, 51, was in the Hennepin County jail late Sunday in lieu of bail after he was booked at 2 a.m. Sunday on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.

Amy Klobuchar was first elected the Hennepin County Attorney in 1998 and served until January of 2007 when she was inaugurated to the US Senate. The death by drunken driver happened under Klobuchar’s watch and the man who was drunk behind the wheel of the car got off easy under Klobuchar’s watch. A cornerstone talking point for Klobuchar was her work in getting the Felony DWI law passed by the MN Legislature, but unfortunately it wasn’t a cornerstone of her work in the Hennepin County Attorney’s office.

Hill asked me to tell you not to bother calling again. But can I get a card in case my brother Roger gets into trouble again and needs a good attorney?

Remember the talk of getting 60 Senate seats last election? Sure it was early on, but still, the hope of ending the roadblock Democrat’s stranglehold on the conservative agenda and judges was inspiring the base and providing hope for our cause….. Then something happened, and it was BEFORE the war and Foley scandalized the (R)epublican brand.

McCain’s Gang of 14!

Hugh Hewitt remembers the first blow fired at the Republican Senate leadership of a 55 vote majority. (read the whole thing)

Then John McCain organized a back-room deal with six other Republicans to undermine the Bush-Frist strategy of returning the Senate to its old rules. The fig leaf was the confirmation of Judges Brown Owens, and Pryor and a promise not to filibuster judicial nominees through the end of the session absent extraordinary circumstances, which were undefined. Other fine judges were thrown under the bus. And the extra-Constitutional schism with hundreds of years of practice was not repaired.

The damage to the GOP was instant and immense. Not only were fine judges sacrificed to John McCain’s ego, many in the base simply tuned out the GOP from that moment forward. Why work that hard and invest that much in a party that cannot deliver on its pledges even when gifted with 55 seats? Why fight for a majority that would not fight? Ohio’s Mike DeWine, an otherwise reliable conservative, never recovered with the Buckeye State’s GOP base and lost his seat in 2006. Rhode Island’s Lincoln Chafee was also turned out, though the party’s bill of grievances against Chafee was much longer than just the Gang of 14.

There were other stumbles along the way to the loss of six seats in the fall of 2006, but the McCain Gang’s coup in the Spring of 2005 started the slide. And for what? White and White argue that we should be grateful for the successful confirmations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito and Judges Brown, Pryor and Owens.

But those fine jurists all would have been confirmed had the filibuster been ended anyway, and many more besides.

At a time when it was Conservative judicial ideals vs. Liberal Obstruction, McCain chose to stop the conservatives from even having the battle.

McCain’s non-proliferation treaty should be seared in conservatives’ minds. He killed the nuclear option, and look what it got us.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Daily Kos MN) voted against funds for the troops this evening.

I wonder if the local press will mention that one.

Lunacracy - A form of Government where reality and common sense are excluded from the debate, where special interest groups have more clout than the average citizens being governed. The Constitution is not to be considered a binding blueprint for the role and powers of such Government.

Lunacrat - An elected official who is more concerned with special interest support than doing what is right for the people they were elected to represent.

In what can only be seen to us commoners as insanity and special interest pandering, the US Senate passed an energy bill this week. Now the one they passed is not as bad as the one the US House did, but in the end, it really does nothing to produce cheaper energy, and is all about limiting your choices in your personal energy consumption.

Thanks to a Democrat the House version failed, yep, we owe a Democrat thanks for stopping energy insanity. Sen Landrieu (D-LA) joined 39 Republicans in voting against cloture (to sustain the filibuster). Sen. John McCain (RINO AZ) was absent from the close vote. But that is probably a good thing since he is an environutter and would probably have voted for it.

Sen. Norm Coleman (Sierra Club MN) voted for cloture and the final bill’s passage. He joined with Sen. Klobuchar and scores of other Democrats, and RINOs (on the issue) to pass this devastating bill. Conveniently absent in the final roll call were Sens. Clinton, Obama, McCain…. well pretty much all those running for President. But they were there for the cloture vote, minus McCain, so they were taking the spineless route of having it both ways. They did vote for it, before they didn’t vote for it. (was it a ploy to appease the automoaker’s unions?)

Now the bill that passed is still devastating, or will be for us, the American citizen. Congress has doubled down on the fettish with renewables and ludicrous efficiency standards.

The car companies will have to achieve an industrywide average 35 mile per gallon for cars, small trucks and SUVs over the next 13 years, an increase of 10 mpg over what the entire fleet averages today.

That is insane! It may not sound insane since no one that is pushing it will tell you the truth, but that doesn’t mean it is not insane. “Industrywide” means that businesses will be crippled. The vehicles that plumbers, contractors, landscapers, etc rely on to carry their equipment and gear to jobs will be hampered greatly. You can’t get 35 MPG in a truck that can carry several hundred pounds of equipment safely. You can’t tow a trailer full of lawnmowers with a Prius.

Seriously folks, even in the best uber environutter hybrids of today, you can barely get better than 35 MPG. A 2007 Toyota Prius only gets an average 46 MPG. For those of us who have actually seen one of these vehicles, we know it is in no way capable of any sort of load carrying. You’ll never be able to carry sheetrock or tow a trailer with such a small vehicle.

So you say, well what about hybrid truck. They are afterall starting to make them. Surely, since envirolunacy makes complete and perfect sense, a hybrid pick up will easily get 35 MPG, so it will be easy for Detroit to meet this mandate. Let’s take a look at the 2007 GMC Sierra Hybrid’s federal MPG rating.

That’s right, even a hybrid pickup only gets 16 MPG.

How does that compare to a regular powertrain?

Here’s the numbers for a 4 wheeldrive 1/2 ton Sierra with the 5.3L Flex Fuel engine.

That’s right, you get just one stinking mile per gallon better out of a hybrid. Oh and like the good little free market lover I am, I grabbed the Fed’s MPG comparison that had the E-85 ratings. Notice the huge decline in miles per gallon when you pump E-85 into it? (Take note of that. I’ll get into the other reason this bill sucks so badly in a minute.)

Well, some of the kool aid drinkers who support this crap (I am talking to you Coleman and Pawlenty) probably think that American automakers are just behind the learning curve on this, and the great minds that brought us the Globe saving Prius, surely have figured out that you can’t just throw a gas guzzeling engine into trucks nowadays. Toyota has a relatively successful light truck line here in America, so surely they have broken the gas guzzler trend. Let’s look at their most fuel efficient 1/2 ton truck for comparison.

Here’s a 2 wheel drive 4.0L 6 cylinder Tundra.

A whopping 2 MPG average improvemet from the Sierra. But what do you have to give up?

A 2008 Sierra with the 5.3L engine, which is questionable at best for heavy commercial use like towing and hauling heavy loads, can hold 1900 (approx) pounds in the bed and tow up to 8900 pounds depending on the truck configuration (reg, ext crew cab, long or short box, rear end ratio).

The more fuel efficient Tundra can haul 1600 pounds (approx) and tow just 5100 pounds max. (source: 08 Toyota )

In order to get your self a couple miles per gallon better, you have to sacrifice a heck of a lot of capability in the truck. Now these are just the low end of the light truck scale. When you get up to the 3/4 ton pick ups and vans, the backbone of America’s work fleets, their capabilities blow these away, and they have to in order to do the work required. In the past, these were excluded from the mandates, or they were low enough to take these into account, but Industry wide, means industry wide, doesn’t it?

The Federal Government is going to mandate that these trucks get 3 times better mileage. You say, “but it is a fleet wide average”, so these trucks don’t really have to get 35MPG. Oh, but as you saw with the Prius, it only gets 46 MPG. That wouldn’t make up the gap for the new Federal mandate for even Toyota’s most fuel efficient 1/2 ton truck. That average of the Prius and small Tundra is just 31.5MPG.

Most automakers have already been doing everything they can to work with in the existing numbers, and cutting every corner possible in their car fleets to meet today’s CAFE standards. In order to go to the new mandate, they will have to cut capabilities in trucks, cutmore performance in the cars, or start to reduce the weight of the vehicles. And that my friends is going to cut into safety and productivity big time.

Congress is taking the easy way out. Rather than do the right thing and tell these special interests to shove it, and concentrate on clean/lower emissions that will actually result in a cleaner world, nope they are catering to the desires of groups that want to kill the American automobile industry. Shame on everyone who voted for this bill, and all of its previous incarnations. It is possible to be a good steward to the environment, with out drinking out of Al Gore’s altar of Man made global warming lunacy.

Now imagine you have a toilet backed up, and need a plumber. Do you think they can haul their power snake in a Prius? Then imagine yourself stuck in traffic behind a truck hauling lawnmowers or a bob cat with out the power to make it to highway speeds. Or maybe you’re in the SUV of the future that is big enough for yourself, 4 kids, and spouse when you get rearended. A vehicle large enough for your family, will have to be lighter to meet the new mandates, endangering your family.

That is what the US Senate made a reality this week. The end of what made America great. The American automobile and truck is now on the endangered species list.

Now back to the Ethanol dilemma Congress has created.

And it would boost use of ethanol to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022, a nearly sixfold increase, and impose an array of new requirements to promote efficiency in appliances, lighting and buildings.

They just up the industrywide MPG averages they want automakers to meet, then on top of that they throw more cold water on an already struggeling market and push ethanol down their/our throats. Well, as we saw above, Ethanol lowers miles per gallon drastically in vehicles. Meaning the higher the concentration of ethanol mandated be sold in every gallon that goes into a vehicle, the lower the overall miles per gallon will be, so the vehicle will have to be even more efficient, resulting in lower performance and safety.

Even at today’s levels of Ethanol production, the entire American economy and population is feeling the heat. Food prices are soaring due to food resources being diverting toward vehicle fuels. Then there is the impact on the environment, which is arguably worse then gasoline. Water is consumed at over a 4 to 1 ratio to produce ethanol.

Which means 140 billion gallons of water will be consumed just in the refining process of the corn to turn it into fuel. That doesn’t even count the water used to grow the corn. The impact of pesticides and herbicides used to grow it, or the pollution from the agricultural runoff. Environutter groups are starting to oppose the renewables, because of their destructive impact on the environment.

Ethanol is not as readily transported as gasoline is. It is more unstable, and has a far shorter shelf life so it is not as market flexible as regular gasoline. You can’t stock up on it for peak seasons. It has to be produced locally and shipped by truck. That diverts resources for regular gas production and distribution, and thus raises those prices.

And after all that, the Government has to pick up a big chunk of the tab in order to get people to produce this stuff. There are Federal and State subsidies that make it very profitable for farmers and distillers/refineries to make this stuff. Unfortunately, it is raising prices on countless other product sectors. That is exactly the wrong thing the American family needs right now, an increase in expenses for daily needs.

You see, you can’t have it both ways. It is a fact, aparently Washington refuses to acknowledge, that most of America needs big vehicles that can’t safely meet these new mandates. I know a lot of you uber liberal lunacrats think you don’t need one of those big SUVs or trucks, but you do need plumbers, contractors, and the like. Have you ever moved? how many trips would it take in that Prius? You do need trucks too. This energy bill may not only kill off the American car manufactures, but also our way of life. They are literally trying to make it impossible for us to live the way we do.

Shame on anyone who voted for this Energy bill. It did nothing but prove that the real power in this country is in the hands of fringe special interests who have the worst intentions for us, the American citizen.

One has to wonder if anyone ever got anywhere before their was taxpayer subsidized mass transit, based on what Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D MN) said after $160 odd million of Federal taxpayer money was handed over (plus State and local taxpayers are picking up the other half) for a commuter rail project that goes roughly half way to St. Cloud.

Moments after Thomas Barrett, the U.S. deputy secretary of transportation, signed an agreement Tuesday committing $156.8 million in federal funding toward the $320 million Northstar line, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said what others have hoped for a decade:

“I want it to go to St. Cloud,” she said from Washington in a taped message that was played to an audience that included Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Congressman Keith Ellison, state legislators, and officials from the three counties involved, Anoka, Hennepin and Sherburne.

As I said, it doesn’t go to St. Cloud.

(graphic: Strib)

“I want it to go to St. Cloud,”

BC: But it doesn’t go to St. Cloud.

“I want it to go to St. Cloud,”

BC: But it doesn’t go all the way there Senator.

“I want it to go to St. Cloud,”

BC: But…

“I want it to go to St. Cloud,”

BC: We could easily drive there by car.

“I want it to go to St. Cloud,”

BC: Are you saying you plan to secure funding to extend the line all the way to St. Cloud?

“I want it to go to St. Cloud,”

BC: Sheesh, you’re worse than my wife. Let’s go now before they laugh.

Big Lake, is only half way to St. Cloud Senator Klobuchar!

In other words, count on spending another $350 million for a train when there is a perfectly collapsed bridge to replace.

$22,310,362,733.54

That’s what the Government paid in interest on its debt in October. Oh, when I say Government, I mean us taxpayers.

Now I am not one to freak out about deficit spending, but this is getting ridiculous. The problem is not revenue, hell revenue is through the roof. Tax cuts don’t cut revenue. The real problem with the Government is the spending.

Now amazingly, well more like, of course, Democrats like Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Strib MN) used debt interest payments as part of their “change” campaigns to get to Washington, but so far the “change” Democrats have done nothing to change the problem.

Earmarks and discretionary spending are still outrageous. Take the water bill that just passed. The original Army Corp of Engineers request was in the neighborhood of $5 billion dollars. The final bill was $15 billion, with a dozen plus projects added in conference committee. Yep, projects were added that were not initially voted on by either House of Congress.

I’m all for doing what needs to be done, but….

That bill was crammed chalk full of pork. Now sure, I know that everyone thinks that a water project for their city is critical to the nation, but it isn’t.

A commenter in my post yesterday about the Veto Override used an example of a $4 million drinking water improvement for the city of Goodview. The commenter claims that the project is needed because of an unfunded mandate.

If you ask me, and I know if you are still reading this, you really care, the problem is not who pays for the project per say. The problem is the unfunded mandate.

Americans had better wake up real dang quick. We cannot continue to go down this road. We can’t continue to want everything from Government. We can’t continue to rely on someone else paying for our desires. We can’t continue to allow (and demand) our Government lay out the agenda for how we live our lives. It is an unsustainable agenda.

We’re supposed to be able to petition our Government when we have a grievance, not to get it to pay for our local projects that have zero affect on the rest of the nation. Of American’s desire to get what they want, K Street and lobbyists were born. That my friends is where things took a turn for the worse.

When I was dreaming up this blog, one of the names I was considering was For Needs, Not Wants. I can live with a Government that helps out with true needs. The problem is, how many people does it take to become a real need worthy of Federal assistance?

Far too often that number is one. As in one member of Congress looking to buy votes with pork projects.

I was very hard on elected officials (and Republicans especially) yesterday for the override, so here I will be harsh with my fellow Americans.

You have absolutely no right to complain about the national debt when you stand there with your hand out. Democrats throw the word sacrifice around when they talk of Government, but they are misusing that word. Sacrifice is not giving more money and power to the Government.

Our founders never imagined that we’d be taxing the nation to pay for a city or pet project. Heck, they probably never imagined the Federal Government taking such an all encompassing role in the daily lives of Americans.

On the state level there is an even more dubious version of pork, LGA (local Government Aid). It isn’t “aid”, it is Municipal Welfare in my opinion.

I don’t know if Americans are truly serious about really solving the debt problem. I know for sure the politicians in Washington won’t do anything about it. If they do what is necessary, and refuse to be little piggies and not put their pork and earmarks in bills, they won’t be in Washington after the next election.

Term limits. That’s the only way we can really do anything about the debt. We need to return Government to the people. Career politicians who have been in office for decades are the biggest problem. Along with that, we need to ban former members of Congress and Government employees from becoming lobbyists.

The only thing short of that would be to nuke K Street. That was a joke, kinda.

I am having a back breaking hell streak here at work (storm sewer flushing the last 2 days), but this line from a story about the Veto Override of the pork filled water bill, pretty much makes me wish I could wash the power hungry career polititions out of DC as easily as I can the leaves out of our storm sewers.

Now he confronts a more hostile, Democratic- controlled legislature, and Thursday’s vote showed that even many Republicans will defy him on spending matters dear to their political careers. 

“spending matters dear to their political careers”

Here I am busting my ass to try to bring home some dough, and the politicians in Washington can’t help themselves but to waste billions and billions of taxpayer money on their own little pet projects to help keep them in office.

That folks is exactly why term limits are so desperately needed. Every single Republican who voted to override the President’s veto on this bill should be ashamed of themselves. Oh and you had better nor even try to call yourselves fiscally conservative after this. You don’t have the right to call yourselves that.

Pork pork pork pork pork. Good little piggies, i sure hope you realize people like me won’t forget this. You wasted money, simply to save your and your fellow aristocrats in Congress’s collective arses.

All 3 Minnesota House Republicans voted for the pork bill. Bachmann, Kline, and Ramstad stood side by side with the Democrats to spend like drunken sailors. The House tally was 361 to 54.

In the US Senate, Sen. Norm Coleman (RINO MN) voted in lockstep with liberal Amy Klobuchar (Strib MN) to waste taxpayer dollars on reelection pork. The Senate tally was 79 to 14.

What can we learn from this? That the power in Washington is so corrupting, that no one can truly be trusted.

Shame on you Bachamnn, Kline, Coleman, and Ramstad. I expect liberal Democrats to waste taxpayer dollars like this, but seeing how you 4 voted today, really chaps my hide.

Can I get an earmark to get some lotion? Maybe one for some TUMS as the stress of watching my Government turn into the personal reelection machine for politicians is sickening.

I’m so terribly disgusted in my Government today, but moreso with the Republicans who failed to protect the taxpayers.

Shame on you all.